Perfect Imperfection
by daughter of athena 2000
Summary: A story of love, life and lessons to be learned. They may not be perfect all of the time, and their plans may not always work out, but they're their own definition of perfect, and that's more than enough for them.


AN: Hey guys! So, this is my first Austin and Ally fanfic, so admittedly, I'm a little nervous. I hope you guys like this, and just so y'all know, I'm always open to constructive criticism, as well as ideas and suggestions that you may have for this story, so don't be shy! If you like this and are also a fan of Lab Rats, I have a few different Lab Rats fanfics under my belt on this site, so feel free to check those out as well. Again, I hope you guys like it, and thanks a ton for reading! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Austin and Ally or The Notebook.

Ally's PoV:

"Okay, keep your eyes closed!"

I giggled at my boyfriend of a year now, whose hands were over the blindfold on my eyes. "Austin, I'm blindfolded! How could I possibly peek?"

I could almost hear him frown in concentration before replying with, "I don't know, but I just want to make sure the surprise doesn't get ruined!"

I rolled my eyes under the blindfold and continued to walk carefully, trusting Austin to lead me and keep me from falling. I couldn't believe it; today was our one year anniversary, which apparently, Austin had a surprise for. A surprise that, according to him was, "The most awesome surprise in the frickin' history of awesome surprises! And did I mention it'll be awesome?" One year. One year of love, laughter, some arguing (sadly), and some really great make-up make-out sessions. Of course, there were other great things too; our first date, for example. God, our first date had been so amazing.

After we had finally decided to seriously date, disregarding the repercussions with Austin's music career, Austin had taken me to the park for a picnic. We sat under an oak tree, had a picnic, and got chased by geese (I told Austin not to toss the bread so hard at them, but did he listen? Of course not). But it was the best date of my life, and Austin said he had loved every second of it.

I was brought out of my thoughts by Austin saying, "Okay, we're here," as he removed his hands from my eyes and took the blind-fold off shortly thereafter. I blinked a little, allowing my eyes to adjust, and when they did I was taken aback. My hand flew to my mouth in awe and tears leaked into my eyes as a ginormous smile captured my face.

We were standing in the same spot in the same park from our first serious date, and a picnic was set up. My heart swelled at the gesture; he had recreated our amazing date, with a few different details to keep things original. For starters, it was night this time instead of day, which was the cause of the white Christmas lights that had been strung up in the air and on the trees, making the place glow wonderously. The light reflected off of the dark pond beautifully, and I turned to face my handsome boyfriend.

"So, do you like it?" he asked nervously, a hand coming up to rub the back of his neck (an old nervous habit of his that I had come to know and love). Though the scene was slightly fancy in a way, I was glad that Austin hadn't been completely stereotypical and done a tux or suit; instead, he wore his dark jeans with a chain attached, a black Beatles shirt and his black Converse. He was so perfectly him, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

"Austin, I love it," I answered, my huge smile growing impossibly bigger. I saw Austin's nervous look fade and be replaced by a joyful and loving look as I walked the short distance to him. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I gave him a sweet kiss before hugging him, feeling safe and loved in his warm embrace.

"I'm so glad you love it," Austin told me, sounding relieved, as we parted slightly and walked to the picnic blanket before sitting down there. It was then that I was really glad that I hadn't worn one of my skirts or dresses, and instead had worn a red, short-sleeved top (Austin's favorite) and dark jeans; it would've been a complete pain to try sitting "like a lady" on a picnic blanket. "You look amazing tonight," Austin told me, giving me a shy smile.

"Thanks," I replied with a smile, "I even wore your favorite top."

Austin rolled his eyes playfully, a small smirk on his lips. "I don't have a favorite, you look great in everything!"

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes and smirk. "Mhm, sure, okay."

"You do! I've been your boyfriend for a year now, and your best friend for practically all of eternity. I've seen you rock everything from a party dress and heels to one of my old t-shirts and some sweats."

"Thank you Austin," I said gratefully.

"Always," he replied, giving me another kiss. "Okay," he continued, "I've got some rather awesome food in here. First, we have," and here he whipped a jar of pickles out, "a jar of dill-not sweet, DILL-pickles for the lady. We've also got some pancakes for the gentleman, some sparkling apple juice-sorry, Mom said no wine- and for dessert, some of my mom's homemade brownies that we both love."

"I swear, your mom's brownies will be the reason we're obese one day."

"Eh, it'll be okay. Even if we ARE obese someday, we can just be obese together, it'll be great!"

I laughed (internally cringing at the sound) as Austin laughed with me. I hated my laugh, but according to Austin, my laugh was "beautiful, just like me". That of course, had led to a two hour debate between the two of us, but that's another story for another time. After we settled down a little bit, Austin opened the pickle jar and pulled out one of the crunchy, delicious vegetables.

"Here, I wanna try something," Austin told me excitedly, "Open up!"

"Really?" I asked with a raise of my eyebrows and a laugh.

"Yes, really," he replied, "Come on, I'm trying to be romantic! And in all those rom-coms you make me watch-"

"Hey, you loved The Notebook!"

"Pfft, what, no I didn't!"

"Austin. You cried in my bathroom for thirty minutes after we finished watching it. I couldn't even get you to come out by bribing you with pancakes!"

"Anyway, in all those movies, the guy always does something cheesy and stupid and romantic on a date, and that something is usually feeding the girl. So come on, please?" He shot me his infamous puppy dog eyes, and I decided that hey, it couldn't hurt.

I rolled my eyes but opened my mouth anyway, almost laughing again at the excited look on my boyfriend's face. Austin brought the pickle closer to me, and right as it was almost in my mouth, I felt something wet hit the middle of my shirt. Austin's eyes grew wide as he stared at my shirt, which, I saw, now had a huge pickle juice stain on it.

"Oh Ally, I'm SO sorry, I-"

"Didn't mean to," I cut him off with a warm smile, "Don't worry, it's fine. I'm sure it'll wash right out."

Austin grabbed a napkin. "Here, let me help-"

"No, Austin don't-" I looked down at the now larger pickle stain, "Smear it."

I looked back up at Austin, who was now rivalling the color of a beet. "I'm so, so sorry Alls." He looked down, almost ashamedly, and I felt my heart pang for him.

I put a hand on his cheek. "Hey, like I said, don't worry about it! It should come out, and even if it doesn't, it's just a shirt. You were just trying to help, it's not a big deal."

He nodded, and we looked at each other for a second. I could tell that Austin was still a little upset with himself, so I decided to cheer him up by suddenly tackling him, taunting, "Bet ya can't catch me!" and then getting up and running.

"Oh, you're on Dawson!" I heard him say as he got up and chased after me.

I looked back to see Austin gaining speed on me, a wide, child-like grin on his face. My heart instantly warmed at the sight; Austin really could be such a child, but he was still exactly what I needed: a child at heart who could be serious or romantic at all the right moments, and who made sure I felt beautiful everyday. I loved this feeling; the feeling of wind blowing my hair back as we ran around the park, the feeling of utter happiness that I possessed in that perfect moment. But what I didn't love was the feeling of pain as I suddenly tripped and fell, face forward, onto the hard ground. Austin, who had been right behind me when I fell, didn't have time to stop and instead fell too, landing next to me.

Austin looked over at me worriedly. "Alls, are you okay?"

I smiled a little; sometimes, Austin's over-protectiveness could be a little bothersome, but other times (such as this one), it was extremely endearing. "Yes, I'm okay Austin. I just tripped, it's not like I broke my leg or something."

"Yeah, but you could've," he muttered as we got up before adding at a normal volume, "Besides, look! You've got a really bad bruise on your arm!"

I looked, and sure enough, a dark bruise was already forming on the inside of my forearm. Looking up at Austin, I playfully rolled my eyes and said, "And you have a bad one on your cheek, but I think we'll live."

Austin gave me a small smile while saying, "You know, when I planned this night out, I didn't think I'd spill pickle juice on you and give you a bruise."

"Admittedly, it's not a perfectly ideal date," I agreed with a small chuckle, "But it's great, and it's memorable, and I wouldn't trade it or you for the world." Austin stared at me lovingly for a second, and I gazed back with the exact same adoration in my eyes. We shared a slow, sweet kiss before pulling away and resting our foreheads together. Then something caught my attention as I glanced over Austin's shoulder. "Um, Austin?" I pointed behind him, causing him to turn around.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, eyes wide as he chased after the geese that were making a mess of our picnic. I didn't think geese enjoyed pickles and pancakes, but I guess I learned something new on that date. I watched in amusement as Austin tried to shoo the geese away, only to result in them honking rather loudly at him and making him jump and run back to me. "Okay, that's not safe, not safe at all. So what now? We can't just leave the mess, but we can't die by the hands-wings? Whatever- of a flock of geese."

I rolled my eyes playfully at my boyfriend before calmly walking over to the geese, slowly picking everything up and putting it back in the picnic basket, and walking back to Austin, basket in hand. He looked at me in wonder. "How-but they-but I-then you-what?"

"You can't startle them, Austin. How would you feel if a crazy blonde guy just came running up to you while you were eating and started yelling in your face?"

"Ask Bill, I think he remembers that time in the food court pretty well."

"What?"

"That's another story for another time. But what now?"

I thought for a second before letting a small smile creep onto my face. "I think I have an idea. Give me your car keys."

"It's not a car, it's a jeep. And why?"

"Just trust me, okay?" He looked at me hesitantly. "Keys, now."

"Fine," he groaned, digging in his pocket and retrieving his keys and handing them to me.

We walked back to his jeep hand in hand, and as we talked I noticed how his smile didn't quite reach his eyes like it usually would. It was odd, but I didn't want to bother him too much about it; I figured that if it were important enough, he'd tell me when he wanted to. When we reached the jeep, I climbed into the driver's side as Austin climbed into the passenger's side, picnic basket in his lap. I pulled out of the park and we drove in comfortable silence for a few minutes before reaching our destination.

Austin looked at me funnily. "McDonald's?"

"Come on," I replied with a smile. We walked in, got our food and found a table, sitting across from each other. "So," I said, "What's up?"

"The sky, the stars, the moon, a lot of things actually," he answered.

I gave him a dry look. "What's going on with you?"

"Whatcha mean?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he stuck three fries in his mouth.

"You know perfectly well what I mean. Ever since the pickle juice spilled on me, you've been acting weird; are you upset or something?"

Austin sighed, leaning back and running a hand through his hair before placing the same hand over his mouth, looking at me and thinking. He finally gave a dry chuckle,  
saying, "Yeah, I'm a little upset."

"Did I do something?" I questioned him slowly.

His eyes widened. "No, God, no! I just...I wanted this date to be really perfect. I didn't want to be super stereotypical, and do the whole fancy restaurant, me in a suit, you in a dress, because yeah it'd be nice. But it's not us. I just wanted you to have a really great night; I wanted to be all romantic and crap. And now, here we are, you have pickle juice on you and a bruise. We're eating in a practically abandoned McDonald's at midnight with a not so romantic atmosphere, and I just...I wanted this to be perfect for you. Because, well, you're perfect, and you deserve something even more perfect than yourself, if that's even possible."

I blushed, awing internally at Austin's confession and taking his hand in mine across the table. "Austin, tonight was perfect."

He blinked at me, his face showing how truly crazy he thought I must be. "It was?"

"Yes! Sure, it wasn't what you had planned, and it definitely wasn't anything that either of us expected, but it was our own kind of perfect. It was weird, and fun, and messy, and I loved every second of it. It's something that I'll definitely never forget, so I promise you, it was perfect."

Austin gave me a brilliant smile, somehow managing to look wide awake with excitement and tired as hell all at once. "I'm glad you liked it." His smile grew impossibly bigger as he continued, "It was probably the funnest date we've ever had."

A small smile overtook my features as I rolled my eyes at him and said, "Funnest isn't a word Austin."

"So? We're having the funnest night ever, why ruin it with grammar?"

"Hey, I will have you know that grammar is one of the most, if not the most, important things in the world! Without grammar we'd never be able to read what others write or understand what they're trying to say. Then we wouldn't really be able to communicate all that well, and something really awful could happen because of miscommunication! And I mean, sure, you could always-"

Austin cut me off suddenly by tossing a fry at my face, making me blink in surprise as he took another and this time stuck it in his mouth. "Alls, I love you, I really, really do. But you talk way too much sometimes."

I threw the fry back at his face as both of us smiled like idiots. "I love you too, Austin. And I do not talk too much!"

AN: So, there it is! I've been working on this for awhile now, so hopefully it's worth the wait! Okay, so question time: I can try, keyword: TRY, to make this into a story or a collection of one shots. If you guys want me to do so, please let me know in a review. Also: if you have an idea or suggestion for another one shot or for a chapter of this story (should I make this into a story) please let me know through a review or PM. Thanks in advance! Alright, well, thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following, if you do! Later! :P


End file.
